Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Bought by Synovus Financial Corp

Key Points

• Synovus Financial Corp increased its holdings in Accenture PLC by 26.1% in the first quarter, now owning 35,421 shares valued at $11,053,000.
• Accenture recently reported a quarterly EPS of $3.49, exceeding estimates, with revenue of $17.73 billion, marking a 7.7% year-over-year increase.
• The company's dividend of $1.48 per share was recently paid, representing an annualized yield of 2.3% with a payout ratio of 47.13%.

Synovus Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 26.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 35,421 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 7,336 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp's holdings in Accenture were worth $11,053,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Lipe & Dalton increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2,087.4% in the first quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,570,000 after purchasing an additional 4,801 shares during the period. Alteri Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $321,000. United Bank acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $758,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $282,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $317,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. Guggenheim cut their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Accenture from $334.00 to $302.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Argus set a $370.00 target price on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $290.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $358.08.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $258.8940 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $236.67 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The business's 50 day moving average is $277.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $306.53. The company has a market capitalization of $162.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%.The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. Analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

About Accenture

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.

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